Otter Tail Power's new solar farm one of largest in Minnesota - INFORUM

Otter Tail Power's new solar farm one of largest in Minnesota - InForum | Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo news, weather and sports

Otter Tail Power's new solar farm one of largest in Minnesota

After years of planning and design, one of Minnesota's largest solar farms is now up and running in Fergus Falls.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — It seems to stretch on for miles. The solar farm on the east side of Fergus Falls is now complete and adding renewable energy to its grid.

The solar farm is 470 acres or, as we calculated, 285 football fields.

"I think there are 70,000 posts that were driven as part of the project. Thirty-seven miles of underground cable at the site," said Otter Tail Power President Tim Rogelstad.

There are now 130,000 solar panels tucked between farm fields and wetlands not far from the retired Hoot Lake coal-fired plant which produced electricity for Otter Tail Power for a century. During its operation, the Hoot Lake Plant went through 150,000 tons of coal per week.

Before that — in the early 1900s — water from the Otter Tail River flowed over a turbine and generator at the Hoot Lake Plant. Now, Otter Tail Power is turning back to another natural form, the sun.

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"What technology is doing and how things evolve, we are in a period of energy transition in this country," Rogelstad said.

With ever-changing technology, Otter Tail Power said it realizes wind and solar are not the only answers to solving the country's energy woes.

"Our traditional fossil fuel facilities have more what we characterize (as) 'reliability attributes' — having the ability to ramp up and ramp down on demand rather than relying on when the wind is blowing and the sun is out," Rogelstad said.

Mother Nature is throwing other curveballs, too, as the solar farm's location in the Gopher state is proving to be all too literal.

"This area here, we had a bit of a gopher pocket situation we had to mitigate. We dug up the wires affected and put them through a conduit so they were not directly buried. The gophers could then keep their habitat and leave our wires alone," said Chris Harris, Otter Tail Power's renewable operations manager.

The project, at just over 49 megawatts, is made possible with a cost-sharing, 40% tax incentive from the government. And adding this solar farm to its energy footprint of wind, gas, solar and coal means Otter Tail Power has cut carbon emissions 43% in a decade.

Otter Tail Power is hoping to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2025.

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